News

George Burley left to rue errors

Holland 3 Scotland 0

IF Scotland are to make the World Cup in South Africa next summer it will have to be through the tradesman's entrance of a qualification playoff. Yet if they do not quickly put some points down soon, even that complicated route may be shut to them as only the top eight runners-up are eligible for those games. It would be typical of Scotland's capacity to torture their followers with arithmetic if they were to be the second-placed side from the nine European groups with a record which still saw them eliminated.

The first opportunity to address this issue comes against Iceland at Hampden on Wednesday in a game which may now define George Burley's first, and perhaps last, campaign as manager if it is not won. It will not cheer him that Scotland have failed to score in five of their last six matches or that the first-half goals they